Life at the Brit

Robbie Burns Night

2010-01-24T21:36:00.000-08:00

Thank you everyone who came out for our 3rd annual Robbie Burns Night. It was another fun night.

On the anniversary of Robbie Burns birth Scots both at home and abroad celebrate Robert Burns with a supper, where they address the haggis, the ladies and whisky. A celebration which would undoubtedly make him proud.

A Fun Tale About The Haggis

A haggis is a small animal native to Scotland. Well, when I say animal, actually it's a bird with vestigial wings - like the ostrich. Because the habitat of the haggis is exclusively mountainous, and because it is always found on the sides of Scottish mountains, it has evolved a rather strange gait.

The poor thing has only three legs, and each leg is a different length - the result of this is that when hunting haggis, you must get them on to a flat plain - then they are very easy to catch - they can only run round in circles.

After catching your haggis, and dispatching it in time honoured fashion, it is cooked in boiling water for a period of time, then served with tatties and neeps (and before you ask, that's potatoes and turnips).The noise haggis make during the mating season gave rise to that other great Scottish invention, the bagpipes.

Many other countries have tried to establish breeding colonies of haggis, but to no avail - it's something about the air and water in Scotland, which once the haggis is removed from that environment, they just pine away.

A little known fact about the haggis is its aquatic ability - you would think that with three legs of differing lengths, the poor wee beastie wouldn't be very good at swimming, but as some of the Scottish hillsides have rather spectacular lakes on them, over the years, the haggis has learned to swim very well. When in water, it uses its vestigial wings to propel itself forward, and this it can do at a very reasonable speed.
Haggis are by nature very playful creatures, and when swimming, very often swim in a group - a bit like ducks - where the mother will swim ahead, and the youngsters follow in a line abreast. This is a very interesting phenomenon to watch The long neck of the mother keeping a watchful eye for predators.
This does however confuse some people, who, not knowing about the haggis, can confuse it with the other great indigenous Scottish inhabitant, the Loch Ness Monster, or Nessie as she's affectionately known,From a distance, I'm sure you'll agree, the tourist can easily mistake a family of haggis out for their daily swim, as Nessie, this o f course gives rise to many more false sightings, but is inherently very good for the tourism industry in Scotland.
The largest known recorded haggis (caught in 1893 by a crofter at the base of Ben Lomond), weighed 25cwt.
In the water, haggis have been known to reach speeds of up to 35 knots, and therfore coupled with their amazing agility in this environment, are extremely difficult to catch, however, if the hunter can predict where the haggis will land, a good tip is to wait in hiding on the shore, beacuse when they come out of the water, they will inevitably run round in circles to dry themselves off.
This process, especially with the larger haggis, gives rise to another phenomenon - circular indentations in the ground, and again, these have been mistaken by tourists as the landing sites of UFOs.
I hope this clears up some of the misconceptions about the Haggis, that rare and very beautiful beastie of the Scottish Highlands (and very tasty too).

(This is a fun tale that my Grandad used to tell us all the time. Its fun to think of the haggis this way)

End of the year Hours

2009-12-17T14:09:00.000-08:00

So we have finally decided on the final hours for December.
We will have regular hours up until christmas eve.

Christmas Eve, 11am - 3:00,
We will then be closed December 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th. OPEN on the 29th, 30, 31st.
Closed Janurary 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. Open Normal hours January 5th.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Thank you all so much for such a wonderful year. We are looking forwards to 2010.

Afternoon Tea Parties

2009-12-10T16:35:00.000-08:00

So we are now finally, offering Afternoon teas. Of course until we get more staff (so we can get more baking done) The afternoon teas are going to have to be Reservation only. So book yours today!!
Call Us at 663 3907. Any day of the week will work, its just Not Available 5pm-9pm on Friday and Saturday.

Fall is here....Where was summer?

2009-10-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

We are now open SEVEN days a week for our winter hours (how i hate saying that word..winter, makes me shiver just mentioning it) Our new hours are: Sunday - Thursday: 11am - 8pm, Fridays and Saturdays: 11am - 9pm.

We are also counting down the days till our new menu comes out. Its going to be Twice as tasty as the one we have now. So many new, amazing food items are being added. I can't wait. Just another 2 more days to!!!

Love Chips

2009-08-27T14:45:00.000-07:00

Just like the title of the post says, I love chips. We tend to eat them often here at the Brit cafe. they give us energy to keep on going, plus they are just so addictive we can't stop ourselves. However they must be covered with salt and LOTS of malt vinegar...mmmmmmm, the vinegar makes all the difference.
So i just found this website (Good old stumble upon), dedicated to Chips (French Fry's) It is letting us know about National Chip Week. I can't wait till next year, it takes place February 15th - 21st 2010. Anyway this site had a whole bunch of facts about chips, recipes, vidoes and this Song about Chips. Which i found quite amusing and very strange.lol

I
If you want to see more, look at there website: http://www.lovechips.co.uk/

Its March Already, Wow

2009-08-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

If back in the UK at this time of year I would be quoting the rhyme about March winds and April showers. But here in Winnipeg it really doesn’t have any bearing on what we can expect, snow, rain and sleet is more appropriate, if there a rhyme that goes with that. I have not heard one but I am sure there must be. At least we can be thankful that the -40’s are behind us (fingers crossed) and we now have a wonderful spring to look forwards to.

Hadley started the new month by putting his back out and has been in pain ever since although it is starting to get better thankfully, he was most annoyed at having to miss his football game. I must admit for the first time in years I did pull out the mother card and ban him from playing as he was considering it, (silly boy).

I have managed to get a raspy throat and a nasty cough that goes with it. Amber thought she was getting a sore throat (all being blamed on Cameron (my youngest) as he has had a bad throat for the last couple of weeks) but as far as I know it has not progressed any further lets hope it stays that way. Jamie has stayed fairly healthy and has been using her spare time (not that she gets very much) on some craft work and has produced some really pretty pendants using scrabble tiles.

We are all trying to come up with an interesting menu for St.Patricks day which is coming up fast I think it will be either an Irish stew or boiled ham and cabbage with some soda bread on the side for either.

The new meat delivery finally got here so our freezers are now full to overflowing and once again we have plenty of selection, we just need the dry goods to arrive sometime in the next couple of weeks we hope but there is no telling, I am afraid we have given up trying to put a firm date on anything that has to be delivered we just live in hope.

Our Rewards program is now in full swing so remember to log in and get your certificates for your FREE meal (Up to $12 off) and enter for the Birthday and Anniversary discount coupon.

Pub quiz is nearly fully booked so it should be another good night, coming up will be our Corrie st. event still not sure what or how but it will be soon I will keep you posted on that one with our progress any requests or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

The Brit Cafe (Janurary to Now)

2009-08-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

t seems like only yesterday we opened the Brit Café and here we are a month into the second year where does the time go!! We have all been away since Christmas and I would like to say we have all come back refreshed but speaking for myself that is far from the truth I went back to Singapore and have been feeling like I was onboard ship ever since probably from the long flight, it has been 45 years since I was last there and boy have things changed we (myself and my sister) managed to find a few of the places we remembered but on the whole it was changed far too much to make me want to keep on looking I would rather keep the memories in my head undisturbed.

The rest of the gang went back to the UK to see family and friends apart from Jamie who had a very hot week in Cuba with her husband Andrew and got quite burned but had a great time, Hadley and Amber and the friends they took with them back to the U.K all got colds or the flu so again not as rested as one would hope, so here we all are back at the Brit I must admit I did miss the place it was quite strange not being here it is so nice being able to be with the kids every day not many of us can do that.

We have made quite a few changes since last year a new Menu and a new chef being the biggest, we have a fresh selection of menu items keeping the most popular of British dishes but adding a few extras for added interest like pasta and Chicken fingers and a whole bunch of interesting sandwiches etc.. we also open every Sunday for Brunch and have added regular weekly specials (posted here on our web site)and thankfully it all seems to be going well which is really why I wanted to start a blog up for the Brit as I would love to have your feed back on how we are doing and what you would like to see in the future my first idea is a recipe exchange I intend to put up at regular intervals my favorite recipes and those that the family have loved over the years so I would like it if you would send or bring in your favorite family recipes and I will then put them up on the web site for all to share.

The Pub quiz nights we run on the second Tuesday of every month are also going strong and we have had a new winner for each one recently it is a great night so do consider putting a team together and joining us for the evening.

For those Corrie fans out there I would love to hear from you to see if there is enough interest in putting on a Coronation street lunch running classic episodes of the show and food from the Rovers Return and Roy’s Rolls including Betty Turpins Hot pot and Bacon Butties.

I would be interested to hear any ideas anyone has for special events we are always open for suggestions and don’t forget we do have a room we can close of for special occasion’s parties, meetings etc.

Well for now that is all I will be back with more updates as soon as I can and hopefully the first Recipe will follow shortly.

2008-10-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

It's nearly a year since we started this journey and I must admit it has not been an easy one,but we have survived and are still here to tell the tale, personally I could never have done it without my children by my side,they have been my rock and I am so thankful that they are taking this journey into the world of business with me and of course my husband busy with his own career as a Realtor but still making time to keep our books in order and handle the paper work, I could never do it myself not in a million years.I wish now I had started this Blog at the beginning of our journey as it has been like a very bumpy roller coaster ride,it seems to be easier and calmer now but we are all so much better at what we do, we have learnt a lot and still have a lot more to learn, it is certinly a work in progress and I'm not holding my breath who knows what is round the corner so far for us there has always been something we don't want (generally machinery breaking down or staff playing up or not turning up)but I live in hope that life will settle down the problems stay behind us and life will be less stressfull giving us something to look forward to in the future..But there again we are running a restaurant, so will life ever be perfect.

2008-10-29T19:04:00.000-07:00